No, Janice, not that you will listen to any I say about the topic, this is
not a sustainable energy source. Hydrates contain only a few percent of
methane. The sediments themselves contain about 11% hydrate (with
correspondingly less methane) (MIlkov et al, 2003, p. 179) and beneath the
hydrate there is only 4% methane. It only takes 2% methane to make the
hydrate visible on seismic data. Now, in order to have a commercial
discovery we in the oil industry need 60% of the pore volume occupied by the
hydrocarbon. So, what your source calls a ‘sustainable’ energy source, I
call a dry hole. Those in academia call it a sustainable energy source so
they can get funding. Of course, I have only had 35 years in the oil
business—what do I know?

Experts at Cardiff University, UK, have designed world-first technology to
investigate sustainable energy sources from the ocean bed by isolating
ancient high-pressure bacteria from deep sediments.

Scientists and engineers at Cardiff University are investigating bacteria
from deep sediments which despite high pressures (greater than 1,000
atmospheres), gradually increasing temperatures (from an icy 2Â°C to over
100Â°C), great depth (several kilometres) and age (many millions of years)
may contain most of the bacteria on Earth.

Some of these bacteria produce methane that accumulates in "gas hydrates" –
a super concentrated methane ice that contains more carbon than all
conventional fossil fuels and, therefore, a potentially enormous energy
source. However, we know little about gas hydrates as they melt during
recovery due to the fall in pressure.

Professor R. John Parkes, of the School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary
Sciences at Cardiff University, is leading part of a major European Union
project, called HYACINTH which is developing systems to recover gas hydrates
and bacteria under high pressure.

He has turned to experts in the University's Manufacturing Engineering
Centre to help create a system that would enable his team to grow, isolate
and study these ancient bacteria in the laboratory.

"DNA analysis of deep sediments has shown diverse bacterial populations,
including major new types, but we have been unable to culture them and this
might be because we have not been able to keep them at the very high
pressures which they need to survive," said Professor Parkes.

The Manufacturing Engineering Centre in the School of Engineering has helped
design and produce a high-pressure system, which is the first of its kind in
the world.

Using titanium and stainless steel alloys, and sapphire windows, the
Centre's experts have built an isolation system, as well as a special
cutting chamber to enable scientists to take precise sediment samples and
grow bacteria from them at pressures as high as 1,000 atmospheres. A special
ram for the system was produced by the Technical University, Berlin.

As well as studying potentially the deepest organisms on Earth this research
might also throw light on the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle by finding out
more about the behaviour of the mysterious hydrates.

One theory now suggests that when the covering of "methane ice" which exists
over much of the seabed of the Bermuda Triangle becomes unstable; this
causes instability of the sea and an explosive mixture of air and methane
above. Any ships or planes travelling over the area could sink or catch
fire.

"So ancient, deep-sediment bacteria may be a key to sustainable energy in
the future and to explaining a few disasters," said Professor Parkes.